Scallop Fishing in Prince Edward Island, Canada

My mind thinks back to when I used to go Scallop fishing with my brother and father, mainly in the rich fishing waters around Pictou Island which is an island between Nova Scotia and PEI. We would awake about five o'clock in the morning, have breakfast and hid for the Beach Point wharf where our scallop boat was docked. Then began the long sail to the scallop grounds around Pictou Island. Finally we arrived and quickly dropped our scallop drags over in the deep Northumberland Strait waters and scrapped the bottom for the scallops. In a short while, the drags were hauled in by a winch and were landed on a platform on the stern deck of our boat. Then began the process of sifting through the rocks, flat fish, etc to pick out the precious scallops. As soon as this process was complete, the platform was lifted and the rocks, etc were dumped back into the sea. The scallop drags were once again winched over to began another tow of the bottom. We then took the scallops and began to shuck them. This involved shoving a knife between the bivalve and cutting the top of the scallop muscle. The stomach and intestines were removed and the last thing on the bottom shell was the cylinder shaped scallop muscle. This was cut off and placed in a small plastic bucket. This process went on for the entire day, and some of the days in the summer were estremely hot. At about seven PM that evening, we started to sale for our home port in Beach Point, PEI. Sometimes we had to keep shucking the scallops during the trip home. Late that night we would arrive at the wharf and sell our scallops to a local buyer and hid home for something to eat and get some sleep to be ready for the next scalloping day.

Scallop fishing was a strenous job because you were on your feet for long hours of the day and sometimes the weather was quite blowy, but it was work that wouldn't shorten your lifespan, and you could make a few dollars at it.

I'm glad I had the opportunity to fish for scallops in the Northumberland Strait off Prince Edward Island, Canada.

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